"We just love it," Mrs Torrance said on the sidelines of an Otago team basketball match yesterday at the new Parakiore sports complex in Christchurch.
"It’s so much fun. We love the Special Olympics vision, the family feeling and it just gets under your skin.
"As a coach and administrator you see the effect that this has — it truly changes people’s lives."
Involved since 1984, the Torrances were already coaching basketball and brought those skills to the Special Olympics Otago club.
Since then, they have also taken on a variety of administrative and governance roles over the years. Mr Torrance is the chairman of the Otago board and recently finished as the national organisation’s chairman. He was head of delegation for the New Zealand team to the Athens Games in 2011 and national basketball team coach at the Shanghai Games in 2007.
Mrs Torrance said her contribution had been more locally focused, serving as club secretary and sports co-ordinator, and leading the fundraising effort. The club needed to raise $150,000 to get its team and volunteers to the National Summer Games.
The Otago team yesterday won one of its three short grading games, which put the team into the B grade for full competition. They then played one full match yesterday afternoon, losing to the Nelson club. The team coaches, Ryan Youmans and Olly Sunderland, are volunteers from the University of Otago.
More than 1200 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 42 clubs nationwide are competing in 10 sports at six venues across Christchurch until sunday at the National Summer Games hosted by Special Olympics New Zealand. — Allied Media
